Amanda didn't need a doctorate in criminal science to know what was going on. This thug had lost a very, very valuable piece of hardware and wanted to get it back before his boss found out he had lost it. Chances are if he returned back from whence he came short a blaster, he's be shot where he stood. This meant those blasters were in short supply, and that even one missing wouldn't go unnoticed by the man or lady in charge. If word got back to them that one of their men was arrested and a blaster was in the possession of the Rocket Patrol, heads would most certainly roll. That made this man desperate enough to hold up the officer he shot at to get answers. It also meant he was nervous and anything was bound to set him off.
Amanda was walking with the man behind him as he led her to the back area of the market. When she waited for the perfect moment, something that was bound to distract what was an already nervous man. That break came when someone in the market dropped a few plates and the sound of them smashing on the ground caused Star's captor to turn in that sound's direction. When he did, Star made her move as she spun around and dropped to one knee as she die, which moved her head out of the line of fire. As she dropped to one knee she three a hard right fist into his rib cage of the man, knocking the wind out of him. Star then grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the blaster, and began to stand up. As she did, Star spun around again so that her back was leaning up against her attacker's torso. She than flung the man over her shoulder while grabbing the blaster at the same time and taking possession of it. When the man landed back first onto the hard ground, his wind was knocked out of him again.
"Thanks for the second blaster," Star said as she inspected it to discover that it very similar to the one she had taken earlier that day. She rolled the man onto his back and cuffed his hands behind his back, "Now you're coming back to headquarters with me."
"I'm not going to tell you anything!" he called out.
"We'll see about that." Star said as she dragged the man back to his feet.
Sergeant Star walked the prisoner back out into the market and towards her speeder which she had already activated remotely to warm up while waiting for her arrival. She wouldn't get halfway to the speeder before all hell broke loose in the middle of a large crowd. The first shot rang out and echoed throughout the crowded market. Before Star could react, the chest of the man she was escorting had exploded as the shot hit him right in the chest. The shot had killed her prisoner instantly as he fell backwards and on top of Sergeant Star. This action was the only thing that saved her life as the person standing above the market on a higher floor fired several more shots, trying to kill Star. The prisoner's body prevented those shots from hitting her, shielding her from fire. This is when things got a little crazy.
Star wanted to fire back but there were a lot of people running in all directions and she couldn't risk hitting a civilian. The crowd was dispersing as quickly as possible with some people diving behind counters and taking shelter in the stores while many others just ran for the nearest exit while screaming in panic. Once the crowd had thinned down, Star timed the shots that were still being fired at her and then acted. She used the blaster she had taken from the prisoner, which seemed a lot more powerful than her own and started to fire shots at the floor she assumed the shots had come from. The shots from her blaster also rang out as the wall where the shots were coming from exploded from the shot's impacts, sending bricks and other pieces of the frame crashing to the ground below. Rather than assume she hit her target, Star moved her arm back underneath the prisoner, which was a wise decision as the next shot almost took her arm off. A few more shots hit the body which sent more blood splattering everywhere. This exchange of blaster fire went on for a few minutes until sirens could be heard coming as several patrol speeders arrived on the scene.
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The man who was firing from above knew better than to hang around and stopped firing, making a very tactical retreat. He was about to be out manned and certainly out gunned so it was in that man's best interests to retreat while he or she still could.
When the officers from the Patrol started to stream into the market place, Star tossed the body off herself and to the side before getting back to her feet. One of the officers from the patrol walked up to her to inspect her since she had a lot of blood on her.
"Are you alright?" he called out.
"I'm fine," Star said as she looked at the mess on her uniform, "The shooter likely went in that direction."
"We got people on it," The man replied but he stopped for a moment as a message was being related to his helmet, "The commander on site wishes to speak with you."
"Alright, alright." Star said as she started to walk away from the officer in the direction of the other patrolmen that had arrived. As she approached what she thought was the commander, she was surprised to see the woman who tried to take the blaster from her earlier standing there with the site commander.
"Sergeant Star," the woman said as she looked over at her, "Why am I not surprised to see you here?"
"What do you want?" Star asked, not in the mood to fool around.
"I need you to grant us access to the lab," She replied, "It's imperative that you give us access to that blaster."
"Why can't see just share?" Amanda suggested, "You let the lab keep working on their blaster and you can have the one that I took from a perp less than ten minutes ago."
The woman looked at the blaster. "How do I know you're not lying?"
Sergeant Star pointed the blaster at ground and fired it. The shot rang out and cause all the officers of the patrol who were there to flinch and turn around to see what had happened. Amanda took two steps closer and handed the blaster to the woman who graciously accepted it.
"I'm not trying to fight you," Amanda told her, "I'm just trying to do my best to make sure these things are taken off the streets before good members of our Patrol get themselves killed."
"Thank you, Sergeant Star." The woman said as she held the blaster with care. "If we find anything out, I will not hesitate to share the results with Commander Anders and remind him how we got this blaster."
"Whatever, lady." Amanda said, as she walked away.
Star didn't care about credit and walked away, heading back to her speeder. She needed to get back to base and get into a new uniform, preferably one that didn't have any blood on it. She also had some additional evidence that she wanted to go over. Evidence she didn't trust the other woman enough to share with her. Not yet at least.